From The Balcony
by CutewithAcapital-Q
Summary: The Queen and King, on the night of the festival of lanterns spy on a darling little couple in a canoe. You fill in the rest!


Happy easter! I just decided to treat you all to a little Tangled something-something!

This is the first of many one-shots I intend to write for Tangled! Basically when I was watching the movie I fell in love with Rapunzel's parents, for silent characters there was so much emotion between them! So I thought how Ironic it might be if they unwittingly spy on what could have been their daughter's first kiss.

Disclaimer: Do I still have to say I don't own them? they didn't speak in the movie and this is entirely my interpretation of their back story...okay I'm bitter because NO I don't own them, there are you happy DISNEY CORP? Seriously this meal is quite completely Disney's regardless of how much spice I added to the dish. However the names are of my choosing, I'm not sure Disney released any official titles, not that I would really change the names to fit Disney's whim. So enjoy!

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><p>Queen Leanora sat high on the balcony of her palace, admiring the vast kingdom she ruled with her King. It was her favorite place from which to look out over the city, and watch her citizens, one of her favorite pastimes. After her daughter's kidnapping, it was all she could do, watch over them as if they were her children, each one of them so beloved to her. Though, today her joy seemed wane, as the sun hovered strikingly bright in the last few hours of afternoon of a very important anniversary.<p>

Now, she didn't know how to feel. On one level, the festival always filled her with swelling bliss, reminding her of the very first lantern she ever sent up into the sky, with the golden haired baby girl in her arms. However the festival always left her with a pained realization, it would be eighteen years since her child was taken from her, and with each passing year a little part of her heart crumbled as the odds slimmed that much more of ever finding her daughter again.

She could always take solace on her balcony though, watching her people dancing gaily in the village center. They were a very compassionate group of subjects over these tragic years, supporting the royalty's search, but in all honestly they did not understand the gravity that pulled on the Queen and King. To them the festival came to represent an enduring hope which the kingdom was built upon. The lost princess was fading into a legend, a symbol of this idealized hope. And that was fine, she supposed, hope was really all they had to keep them going. It was all anyone had, if one thought about it.

Leanora felt the presence of her husband approach her from inside. It was nearly time to prepare for the celebration. The King was particularly solemn on this day; she knew it was an even harder blow for him, losing their child like that. After the trying ordeal of almost losing both his wife and baby, he vowed whole heartedly to protect the princess in every way he could when she was born. So soon after, she was taken from him, and it left him guilty for what had happened, not being able to stop it, unable to find her after all these years. Each festival weighed on his mind. For this reason the Queen held her head high in the face of such strife and attended to her husband's grief first and foremost.

They embraced quietly for some time, and then proceeded to their chambers to dress for the occasion, as the setting sun approached.

It was nearly time, just a few finishing touches to their ceremonial wears. After so many years of marriage, they trusted each other to act as their mirrors and straighten their garments. The Queen gently centered the golden crest of the kingdom that lay on her husband's chest, and then with a heavy heart swiped a tear off his cheek.

When they reemerged onto the parapet overlooking the palace courtyard, approaching the single lantern lit and waiting for them, they saw the touching loyalty of their subjects. They were gathered, in a massive crowd in the courtyard below, all with unlit lanterns. In the increasing darkness they could just make out the many villagers in their favorite viewing spots watching the palace from the streets and from their roof tops, waiting patiently for their leaders to commence the ceremony.

Eighteen years of practice the Queen knew the perfect moment, when the sky's color had shifted into the distinct shade of deep sapphire. Together with the King, she lifted the delicate paper cylinder off the anchoring ribbons. The soft heat warmed the Queen's hands and her spirit, as they lifted it gently into the air. It drifted tenderly silent and alone. The Royal couple watched it with longing for all that it meant to them. The Queen's eyes swept over the vast kingdom, as lights, one by one, flickered to life. Then suddenly their lantern wasn't alone, first only joined by a few, then a dozen, and then hundreds of them flooded the air, filling the night with a peach and yellow glow. The Queen closed her eyes and breathed in the warmth, and silently marveled at the sight. Then she looked out over the water, where the lights reflected in the surface and seemed to double the beauty of the scene. Her eyes fell upon a single canoe, and she could barely make out the two occupants. Kindled with amusement, she pointed out the couple to her husband. They walked over to a better vantage point to revel in the sweetness of the scene in the slight distance.

The two in the boat were both young, and a sweet looking couple. From out of town perhaps, at least the girl was, she looked a little more enthralled with in the show then her partner. The Queen also loved this part of the day as well, the lanterns made the night light up, and she could clearly see almost all the kingdom's inhabitants, and the looks on their faces as the show went up. The girl had obviously never seen anything like these lights, and who could blame her, they were quite spectacular, but while she clung to the bow of the canoe spellbound by the lights around her, the young man only had eyes on her. This made the Queen laugh softly, reminded of her husband and their first ride on the waterfront.

The king eyed his with amused suspicion.

"What?" He asked quietly.

"Just there, look," she pointed slightly to the scene, "Remind you of anything?"

He looked out to the water, then back at his wife, and chortled knowing what she was getting at, but played dumb anyway, "What?"

"You don't see it?" she asked in disbelief.

"Well that poor idiot is about to get shut-down," He smiled, she was happy that the conversation was succeeding in pulling him out of his annual melancholy.

"Not unlike another poor idiot we know, hmm?" she nudged him with her shoulder.

"Me? No way. That boy's not even going to get the kiss," they did this often, make up histories and bet on outcomes for the people they looked upon in the street.

"Oh, he's so getting the kiss," she countered, leaning a little further over the ledge to see.

"Not a chance," he still argued, "Look, she's hardly looked at him the whole ride."

"No, no, see she's facing him now!" the Queen pointed excitedly, then continued to commentate the lovebirds, "She's just given him something, and do you see they've got their own lanterns, too?"

"And right now, he's going to do something completely moronic to ruin the moment," the King interjected.

"You'd know from experience, Darling," she said sweetly teasing.

"What I did was a foolproof genius move!"

"Of course, Dear," she returned seriously, "Falling out of the canoe _is genius, not in the least moronic."_

"The point," he stressed, "was to get your attention, and it worked."

"I couldn't very well let you drown. How would it have looked to your father? I would have come back alone, and have to explain to him that you, the future leader of his kingdom, 'fell out' of the boat. His plan was to unite our kingdoms, not start a war."

"Well my plan worked either way."

"You got pneumonia." She reminded him.

"Precisely, and I was put into your care," then he put an arm around her and planted a kiss on her temple, "and taken care of me you have."

She smiled at the picturesque scene their playful bickering had ended in, and yet felt exceedingly empty on the inside that one person was missing from this familial seen.

"Look," Her husband prompted softly back to the canoe. The couple was starring deeply into each other's eyes. The young man put a careful hand on the girl's cheek, and they were leaning toward each other, it seemed the King was about to be proven false…But then they stopped, an indescribably close proximity away from a kiss. Some outer force halted the magic about to occur; the stranger part was that it seemed to have been instigated by the young man.

"Oh, my," the Queen gasped softly as this happened, "I guess you were right." She frowned, confused why the boy had done that.

"What did I tell you, absolutely moronic," the king said mournfully, ashamed to share genders with the idiot in the canoe, then caught sight of his wife's expression and suggested, "Or perhaps their off to find a more secluded place."

"Yes, perhaps," the Queen sighed.

"As should we, it's getting cold out here," he observed the warm lanterns going higher and higher into the air, and the chilling fog coming off the sea set in again.

"Yes," she agreed distractedly still watching the boat disappear on the water into the setting fog.

"Henric, I love you."

"And I you, Lea."

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><p>Tell me what you think! I love reviews!<p>

PS if you enjoyed this please check out my other tangled fics!


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